"Trump LOST IT as Carney Tells the World America Can't Be Trusted" | Bill Clinton

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]You know, folks, I want to talk to you tonight about something that's been weighing on me. And I think if you're paying attention, really paying attention, it ought to weigh on you, too. Regardless of what party you belong to.

[00:00:16]A few days ago, 47 world leaders gathered in Yeravan, Armenia for the European Political Community Summit.

[00:00:26]Now, that alone isn't unusual.

[00:00:29]leaders meet all the time. But here's what caught my eye and what I think history is going to remember.

[00:00:37]The defining conversation at that summit wasn't about working with America.

[00:00:44]It was about working around America.

[00:00:48]Let that sink in for a moment.

[00:00:51]The country that built the post-war order, the country that held the free world together through the Cold War, through every crisis I can remember, and I've been through a few of them. That country wasn't at the table, wasn't even invited.

[00:01:10]And the person who stole the show, the prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, the first non-European leader ever to attend this forum.

[00:01:21]Now, I've known moments where America's leadership was questioned.

[00:01:26]I lived through some of them from behind the resolute desk.

[00:01:31]But I'll tell you something. There's a difference between the world questioning your judgment on a particular decision and the world quietly deciding it needs to build a future that doesn't depend on you at all. That's a different thing entirely.

[00:01:50]And two days after that summit, something happened in Quebec that tells you this isn't just talk.

[00:01:58]We'll come back to that in a moment. But first, let me walk you through how we got here because the details matter and I don't think enough people are hearing them clearly.

[00:02:12]Now look, to understand what happened in Yeravon, you've got to understand the landscape.

[00:02:19]Because none of this occurred in a vacuum.

[00:02:22]The European political community was created in 2022 right after Russia invaded Ukraine.

[00:02:30]Emanuel Macron launched it as a way to keep European and non-European nations aligned on security, energy, migration, trade, the big stuff. It's not NATO. It doesn't produce binding agreements, but it's where leaders go to take the temperature of the continent. And let me tell you, the temperature right now is running hot.

[00:02:58]In the weeks before this summit, President Trump announced the withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany. Then he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that it would be a lot further than 5,000.

[00:03:13]He threatened similar reductions in Italy and Spain.

[00:03:18]This came after he publicly attacked German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz for criticizing America's handling of the Iran conflict.

[00:03:28]Now, I served as commander-in-chief.

[00:03:31]I expanded NATO. I managed the Bosnia crisis, negotiated the Dayton Accords, kept coalitions together through disagreements that got plenty heated behind closed doors. Let me tell you something. Alliances aren't a favor you do for other countries. They're architecture.

[00:03:53]They're the scaffolding that holds up your influence, your security, and yes, your economy.

[00:04:01]When I worked with European leaders, we didn't always agree. Sometimes we fought like cats and dogs. But we never never use troop deployments as a punishment for criticism.

[00:04:17]That's not alliance management. That's coercion.

[00:04:21]And here's where Mark Carney enters the picture. He'd been making this argument since Davos in January that the world wasn't experiencing a transition but a rupture that the rules-based order America built was fading.

[00:04:40]And in Yeravan, he walked into a room full of leaders who were ready to listen.

[00:04:47]Let me take you through what actually happened step by step because the facts here are important.

[00:04:56]On May 4th, 2026, Prime Minister Carney arrived in Yeravan for the eighth European political community summit. He held bilateral meetings with the leaders of France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, and the presidents of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament.

[00:05:20]Roberto Metsa, the Parliament President, invited him on the spot to address the European Parliament, and he accepted.

[00:05:31]He announced $270 million in new military aid for Ukraine.

[00:05:38]And he told the assembled leaders, and I want you to hear this carefully, that the international order will be rebuilt out of Europe.

[00:05:49]Now, that's a remarkable statement coming from a Canadian prime minister standing on a stage in Armenia.

[00:05:57]But here's what makes it more than just rhetoric.

[00:06:01]Two days later on May 6th, Carney stood in Mirabel, Quebec alongside Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandez to announce the largest order of Canadian produced commercial aircraft in history.

[00:06:18]150 Airbus A220 300 jets all assembled at the Mirabel facility supporting nearly 5,000 workers. Carney framed it explicitly as proof that Canada's trade diversification strategy works. He talked about countries choosing to build in the face of adversity and opening up rather than turning back.

[00:06:46]Meanwhile, Canada had already joined the EU's Security Action for Europe initiative, signed a new strategic partnership with the EU, and was pitching itself as the premier destination for global capital and investment.

[00:07:03]This isn't a country reacting emotionally.

[00:07:07]This is a country executing a strategy.

[00:07:10]And that strategy is built on the premise that depending on the United States under current leadership is a risk they can no longer afford to take.

[00:07:22]And this is where things start to get complicated.

[00:07:26]Here's the honest truth and I want to be fair to everyone involved because I think fairness matters more than ever right now.

[00:07:36]Mark Carney has every right and arguably a responsibility to diversify Canada's economic and strategic relationships.

[00:07:48]When your largest trading partner slaps tariffs on you, threatens to annex your sovereignty. Remember, this is a country Trump has talked about making the 51st state and uses economic coercion as a tool of foreign policy. You'd be negligent not to look for alternatives.

[00:08:10]The Airbus Air Asia deal, that's smart governance.

[00:08:16]Building deeper ties with the EU, responsible diplomacy.

[00:08:22]any leader in his position, liberal, conservative, doesn't matter, would be doing some version of this.

[00:08:31]But I'll be honest with you, there's a line between strategic diversification and positioning yourself as the explicit counterweight to the American president on the world stage.

[00:08:45]When Carney walks into a European summit and says the world order will be rebuilt out of Europe.

[00:08:54]When observers describe him as positioning himself as the polar opposite of Trump.

[00:09:02]Well, that's a choice that carries consequences, too. It raises temperatures. It gives ammunition to those who want to frame this as an anti-American coalition rather than prudent policy.

[00:09:19]Now that said, I reserve my deepest concern for the decisions coming out of Washington.

[00:09:27]withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany, not as part of a strategic review, not in consultation with allies, but as retaliation because a chancellor had the audacity to criticize your handling of a war.

[00:09:47]That's not strength.

[00:09:49]That's insecurity dressed up as toughness.

[00:09:53]I had disagreements with allies. You work through them. You pick up the phone. You don't move battalions to prove a point.

[00:10:04]Even Republican leaders on the armed services committees, Roger Wicker, Mike Rogers, call this decision deeply concerning.

[00:10:15]When your own party's defense hawks are worried, that ought to tell you something.

[00:10:21]We've got to remember something that I think gets lost in all the day-to-day noise. The institutions that keep the world stable. NATO, the G7, the WTO, our bilateral trade agreements, the whole framework of alliances and treaties. They weren't built by one president or one party.

[00:10:44]They were built across generations by Democrats and Republicans who understood something fundamental.

[00:10:53]America's power doesn't just come from the size of our military or the strength of our economy.

[00:11:00]It comes from being a country that others can count on. predictability, good faith, the knowledge that when America makes a commitment, it means something.

[00:11:15]Now, what happens when that trust erodess?

[00:11:20]I'll tell you what happens because we're watching it in real time.

[00:11:25]Canada joins the EU's defense initiative, first non-European country to do so.

[00:11:32]47 leaders meet in Yeravan and the conversation centers on how to build security and economic systems that don't depend on Washington's mood. A Canadian prime minister flies 11 hours for an eight-hour meeting because that's how urgently he views the need to build alternatives.

[00:11:55]European Parliament leaders are practically competing to get facetime with him.

[00:12:01]This isn't anti-Americanism.

[00:12:03]This is the rational behavior of responsible nations that have concluded they cannot plan their futures around a partner who uses troop levels as a bargaining chip and tariffs as a weapon against friends.

[00:12:20]And here's what breaks my heart. This institutional architecture took decades of bipartisan work to build. I worked on it. George HW Bush worked on it.

[00:12:34]Eisenhower, Truman, every president in between contributed something.

[00:12:40]It's like a cathedral that generations built stone by stone. And you can take a wrecking ball to a cathedral in an afternoon, but building it back, that takes a lifetime.

[00:12:55]The damage being done right now isn't just to one presidency or one political cycle. It's to the foundation of American influence in the world. Now, let me tell you about the chess board that I think most people aren't seeing clearly.

[00:13:11]What Carney is doing isn't just attending summits and giving speeches.

[00:13:16]He's building something.

[00:13:18]Canada has signed 20 new economic and defense partnerships in a single year.

[00:13:25]They've secured nearly a hundred billion dollars in foreign investment commitments.

[00:13:31]They're pitching themselves as a stable AAA rated rule of law alternative for global capital that's getting nervous about the United States.

[00:13:43]That Airbus Air Asia deal in Mirabel, it's not just about airplanes. It's a signal to Southeast Asia, to Europe, to every country watching that you can build major commercial relationships with Canada without routing them through Washington's approval.

[00:14:04]And the EU is playing its part, too.

[00:14:07]Inviting Carney to the EPC wasn't a casual gesture. A senior EU official said his presence demonstrates the close proximity between Europe and Canada.

[00:14:20]Polls in Canada now show significant public support for even considering EU membership.

[00:14:29]Now, you might say, "Well, Clinton, isn't competition healthy?

[00:14:34]Isn't it good for Canada to stand on its own?" And in a way, yes.

[00:14:41]But here's what I need you to understand.

[00:14:44]When middle powers start forming coalitions that deliberately orbit away from American leadership, that's not competition.

[00:14:55]That's realignment.

[00:14:58]And realignment doesn't happen because other countries want to leave us. It happens because we give them no choice.

[00:15:08]Every tariff threat, every troop withdrawal uses punishment, every public humiliation of an allied leader. It doesn't make America look strong. It makes other nations do the math and decide the cost of depending on us is higher than the cost of building something new.

[00:15:32]The Airbus deal was announced in Quebec, not Alabama.

[00:15:38]Even though Airbus has an A220 assembly line in Mobile.

[00:15:44]Think about what that means for American workers. Think about where those jobs are going and why. So, where does this lead?

[00:15:54]I see three roads ahead and I want to be honest with you about all of them.

[00:16:00]The first road, and the one I pray for, is correction.

[00:16:06]America wakes up to the fact that alienating every ally we have is not a strategy.

[00:16:15]a future president, or even this one, if he finds the wisdom, re-engages with NATO partners, offers Canada a genuine path back to stable trade relations, and rebuilds the trust that's been damaged.

[00:16:33]It wouldn't be easy. Trust once broken, takes years to restore.

[00:16:40]But it's possible.

[00:16:42]America has corrected course before.

[00:16:46]The second road is drift.

[00:16:49]Things continue more or less as they are. The rhetoric stays hot, but no fundamental break occurs.

[00:16:59]Allies hedge their bets, keeping one foot in the American orbit while building backup systems on the side.

[00:17:08]This is probably where we are right now.

[00:17:11]It's manageable in the short term, but it's corrosive.

[00:17:16]Every year of drift makes the alternative structure stronger and the incentive to come back to America weaker.

[00:17:27]Canada keeps diversifying.

[00:17:29]Europe keeps investing in its own defense. And slowly, gradually, the center of gravity shifts the third road. And this is the one that keeps me up at night is fracture.

[00:17:46]A permanent restructuring of the Western Order where Europe, Canada, and like-minded nations build parallel systems for trade, defense, and diplomacy that no longer assume American leadership at all.

[00:18:05]Not because they hate America, but because they've concluded they simply cannot afford to rely on a partner this unpredictable.

[00:18:16]If that happens, and the Yeravon summit, the EU Canada strategic partnership, the Airbus deal, all of it suggests the groundwork is already being laid.

[00:18:31]Then America won't just lose influence.

[00:18:34]It will lose the infrastructure of influence. The networks, the habits of cooperation, the institutional memory of working together.

[00:18:47]And rebuilding that from scratch.

[00:18:50]I'm not sure any one president could do it.

[00:18:54]Let me tell you something from the heart.

[00:18:57]I love this country. I've seen it at its best and I've seen it stumble.

[00:19:04]I've been in rooms where the fate of nations turned on whether an American president could be trusted to keep his word.

[00:19:13]And every time, every single time, the answer was yes.

[00:19:21]That trust wasn't just good manners.

[00:19:24]It was power.

[00:19:26]Real power. the kind of power that doesn't need to threaten because people already want to work with you.

[00:19:35]What I saw in Yeravon and what I saw in Mirabel two days later tells me that trust is fracturing.

[00:19:45]Not because of one speech or one summit, but because of a pattern.

[00:19:52]Tariffs used as weapons against friends.

[00:19:56]Troop deployments used as punishment for criticism.

[00:20:00]Alliances treated as transactions rather than commitments.

[00:20:06]And I want to be clear. I'm not saying Mark Carney is wrong to protect his country.

[00:20:12]I'm saying we should be asking ourselves why protecting your country now means building around the United States rather than building with it. That's the question that should haunt every American regardless of party.

[00:20:29]But here's what I also believe deeply and without reservation.

[00:20:35]This country has corrected course before.

[00:20:39]After Watergate, we rebuilt trust in our institutions.

[00:20:44]After Vietnam, we rebuilt our standing in the world. After the financial crisis, we rebuilt our economy.

[00:20:54]We have that capacity. It's in our national DNA.

[00:21:00]But correction doesn't happen by itself.

[00:21:03]It requires citizens who demand better.

[00:21:06]Leaders who understand that strength without wisdom is just noise. and a commitment, a real bipartisan commitment to the idea that America's role in the world isn't something to weaponize for political points. It's something to protect, to nurture, to pass on. The world is watching. And right now, what it sees is a country arguing with its best friends while its competitors take notes.

[00:21:40]We can do better than that.

[00:21:42]We have to do better than that. And I believe I truly believe we will.

[00:21:50]But not unless we start